Apple Watch detects symptoms of a thyroid problem months before diagnosis ›Macer’s head

A nursing student in Australia encourages Apple Watch owners to turn on heart rate notifications after the smartwatch detects symptoms of thyroid disease months before diagnosis.

Apple Watch warns of a health problem

Apple’s heart rate alerts have helped many people learn about their heart problems and prompted them to seek more medical help. A recent post on TikTok shows that the smartwatch can detect changes so early that they are sometimes diagnosed only months later.

On February 2, TikTok user Lauren urged viewers of her video to turn on Apple Watch notifications to detect low and high heart rates, irregular rhythms, and levels of cardio fitness. In the video posted by independent Lauren explains that she was diagnosed with thyroid disease a few weeks ago, even though she could have reacted earlier to the health issue. She explained that her Apple Watch already knew something was wrong, but Lauren didn’t care about the job. She explained:

“Instead of waiting for my symptoms to get worse, I could have gone to the doctor in October when levels dropped dramatically in a matter of days,” says Lauren, who shows a screenshot of a graph from the Health app. “It has decreased dramatically, which means my cardiovascular system is not working as well as it used to be.”

The decrease was also associated with other symptoms, including fatigue, sensitivity to heat, weight gain, dry skin and increased irritability. In December, Lauren was diagnosed with developing thyroiditis. She is treated.

Lauren admits that the Apple Watch wasn’t usually an option for her to get her health and medical advice, but in this case it could have been very helpful:

“Don’t get me wrong, the Apple Watch is certainly not something you should follow as medical advice, but it could be useful, I think, as a tool to ask you to check things out further.”

“But in this case, I really wish I had turned on all the settings, noticed the changes, and went to the doctor sooner.”

Since publication, the TikTok video has been viewed more than 350,000 times. Comments on the video praised the Apple Watch’s heart-related features, including collecting heart rate data for use by doctors.